The Knicks came into this season with low expectations. They traded away star Carmelo Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott.

The team officially belonged to the 22-year old Latvian, Kristaps Porzingis.

After an expected 0-5 preseason, the regular season started off surprisingly well for the Knicks. After a 0-3 start, they won their next three, including an impressive win over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland. During their three-game winning streak, Porzingis set a career-high 38 points against the Denver Nuggets.

Four days later, Porzingis scored 37 points against the Phoenix Suns including this to ignite The Garden…

Besides Porzingis setting records, Tim Hardaway Jr., got hot as the season progressed. Kanter was hauling in rebounds left and right and McDermott, who is known to be a sharpshooter, was dunking on everyone who was in his way.

Then, Christmas came around…

After going up to 17-14 after an impressive win over the Boston Celtics, they had risen to 8th place in the Eastern Conference, the latest they’ve been in the top eight in what feels like forever.

The Knicks dropped four straight after their win against Boston and dipped below .500 again before salvaging one away from the New Orleans Pelicans, thanks to Porzingis’ clutch gene.

Into the new calendar year, the Knicks were sitting at 18-18, well above what was projected. It was a good time to be a Knicks fan.

January was a mess for the Knicks.

They lost all the mojo they had in November and early December. Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek found a rotation with 34-year old Jarrett Jack getting more minutes than 8th overall pick, 19-year old Frank Ntilikina, stunting his development. Also, Kanter and Kyle O’Quinn were getting more minutes than 23-year old, 2017 All-Rookie First Team Willy Hernangomez, stunting his development, as well. The Knicks went 5-11 in the month of January, falling out of the playoff picture.

And of course, like last season’s drama, Derrick Rose failing to tell the team he was planning to take some time off, there was drama again this season.

Joakim Noah, whose Knicks career has been an absolute disaster, had a fall out with coach Hornacek and it looks like we’ve seen the last of Noah in a Knicks jersey.

Right before the trade deadline, the Knicks were involved in a three-team trade in which they traded, not Noah, but McDermott to the Dallas Mavericks and in return got Emmanuel Mudiay from the Denver Nuggets. Mudiay was someone the Knicks were looking to draft in 2015 but took Porzingis with their pick.

Then on Feb. 6 the season officially fell apart for New York.

There were rumors that Hernangomez had asked the front office for a trade.

Hernangomez had grown upset and disgruntled for his lack of playing time earned after he says he’s been working his butt off in practice. He confirmed the rumors in the locker room before the game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Hernangomez was eventually traded to the Charlotte Hornets for Johnny O’Bryant and two second-round picks.

Later on Feb. 6, every Knicks fan’s worst nightmare became true.

This is it. This is the end. Kristaps Porzingis suffers knee injury after dunking on Giannis Antetokounmpo, carried to locker room. pic.twitter.com/fqQK5TTbDy

It’s very visible by the expression on Porzingis’ face that something wasn’t right and he was in an excruciating amount of pain.

The looks on the faces of Knicks GM, Scott Perry (left) and Knicks president, Steve Mills (right), was the exact reaction all of New York had.

There were multiple reports that Porzingis was fine and walking under his own power and a video shown of the Knicks European star leaving Madison Square Garden with a cast.

It was a pleasant sign for Knicks fan, including myself, but then I remembered that Philadelphia Eagles star quarterback Carson Wentz jogged into the locker room after a knee injury, which turned out to be a torn ACL.

Then, the confirmation that will haunt the Knicks for the next calendar year…

Medical Update: An MRI confirmed that Kristaps Porzingis tore the ACL in his left knee.

It was such a blow for Porzingis who was having the best season of his young career. Porzingis had 22.7 PPG, was shooting 43.9% from the field, 39.5% from behind the arc and was leading the NBA with 2.4 blocks per game. He was also named to his first career All-Star game.

So, in conclusion, with Porzingis’ torn ACL combined with the Knicks’ bad luck and horrid development of young players, expect another one of these articles in February 2019.

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